This invention relates to a tufting machine, and more particularly to a narrow guage cut pile tufting machine.
In multiple needle tufting machines having needle gauges as small as 1/10th inch in a straight, single row of needles, the needles are so close together that their penetration of the cloth weakens the fabric and tears the fabric backing. Furthermore, this severly restricts the size of needles that can be used and therefore restricts also the size of yarn which can be tufted.
Previous attempts to employ staggered needles on a 1/10th inch gauge in a cut pile tufting machine have not permitted sufficient room between the needles for the hooks, knives and yarns to pass, so long as the loopers and knives are of conventional thicknesses.
Heretofore, it is has been believed that the employment of loopers and knives of lesser thickness would render the loopers and knives too weak, or at best too flexible, for satisfactorily carrying out their functions of rapidly holding and cutting the loops formed by the rapidly penetrating needles.
One of the above problems is solved in the U.S. Pat. No. 4,003,321 of Roy T Card, issued Jan. 18, 1977, for "CUT PILE APPARATUS FOR STAGGERED NEEDLE TUFTING MACHINE". In the pending Card application, the needles are staggered, but all of the hooks have bills of different lengths, so that the hook throats may be mounted in alignment, and the bills of the hooks will cross their corresponding needles by virtue of their lengths varying correspondingly to the longitudinal spacing between the rows of staggered needles. Accordingly, the knives in such a tufting machine may also be aligned, so that none of the knives have to move between any of the needles. Therefore, the knives do not clutter up the spacing between the needles, even staggered needles. However, even the needle gauge in such a staggered needle arrangement is limited by the thickness or width of the bills of the corresponding hooks.